Best EBay sniping tool?

[david i]

David, you may be correct here, but there is a touch of fun in bidding.

 

 

That i cannot argue with

 

david

 

[wednesday_mac]

So what happens when two/three/etc. snipers are bidding against one another in the last seconds? He whose service gets the last high bid in at the last second wins? So you kick the service and say bad words if the winning bid is lower than your highest bid?

 

 

[david i]

So what happens when two/three/etc. snipers are bidding against one another in the last seconds? He whose service gets the last high bid in at the last second wins? So you kick the service and say bad words if the winning bid is lower than your highest bid?

 

The "pipeline" rarely is the issue anymore. In case of multi snipers, the highest bid generally will win, just as if all had bid bit earlier or nibbled.

 

Keep in mind, the "odds' benefit in blackjack for a casino does not result in 100% win on all hands dealt. The casino still makes zeelions of dollars with a 1% or so house advantage.

 

Similarly who are familiar with sniping do not assert that sniping yields any sort of guarantee in any given auction (as with any given blackjack hand). Rather, due to the "obvious" elements of auctions psychology (detailed in other posts, but available for reprint now if needed), sniping gives a modest benefit in some auctions. But, when one is bidding on a couple hundred auctions per month, a couple-ten percent advantage is a very useful thing indeed... especially when there is no downside to the process.

 

regards

 

david

 

 

[finalidid]

I had the misperception that a sniping tool would enter, and re-enter, and up, and re-up, my bid up to a maximum, incrementally. It does not. It just enters my maximum bid amount, and it enters it only once; but it does so automatically and at the last possible moment rather than at some earlier time when I'm sitting in front of the computer. The preceding question is perhaps founded on a similar misunderstanding. So, to answer it, if there are several people all sniping at the last possible moment, all that happens is that several bids are entered within seconds (or micro-seconds) of one another and mere moments before the end. The highest bid wins. As per normal.

Edited March 26, 2008 by finalidid

[Nihontochicken]

Advantage to sniping: highest bidder still wins, but often at a lower price than with non-sniping, because the second-place guy is prevented from irresponsible nibbling. That second-place irresponsible nibbler's maximum SHOULD be his total maximum, period; not something which he's willing to increase when it becomes clear that it's not the top bid. If he's willing to increase it, then it's not his maximum. So, as a nibbler, he's messing with the assumptions behind eBay. Consequently, sniping is actually MORE true to the ethical foundation of that type of auction, than nibbling is.

 

Amen.

 

i use www.esnipe.com. the fees are low, they e mail me if i am outbid during the auction so i can modify my bid--or not. they do not charge anything if you lose the auction. they have never screwed up in the 6 years i've used them.

 

I use esnipe also. The service is good, but not perfect. The failure rate ("ebay connection problem") for me is about 0.5%.

 

 

 

 

[murph]

Advantage to sniping: highest bidder still wins, but often at a lower price than with non-sniping, because the second-place guy is prevented from irresponsible nibbling. That second-place irresponsible nibbler's maximum SHOULD be his total maximum, period; not something which he's willing to increase when it becomes clear that it's not the top bid. If he's willing to increase it, then it's not his maximum. So, as a nibbler, he's messing with the assumptions behind eBay. Consequently, sniping is actually MORE true to the ethical foundation of that type of auction, than nibbling is.

 

Amen.

 

So why bother sniping at all instead of just entering your maximum bid earlier? Because you know you probably won't get it at that price and someone will outbid you? Therefore the person willing to pay the most will win and that's the whole idea behind any sale or auction.

I might be willing to pay $500 for an item but at a push I'd have gone an extra 5% just to ensure I got it but a sniper comes in and buys it for $501 but wouldn't have gone over $510 for anything. Is it fair they won? You would say you should have put in $525 earlier then but I could reply the sniper should have put in their maximum earlier as well then and we'd both have been sniped for an extra few bucks.

 

I've often nibbled if I don't want something too badly and just fancy a bid or two in the passing. I've even been sniped and still ended up with the item because it didn't quite reach the reserve and I'm willing to pay more than the sniper when I open a dialogue with the seller afterwards or I ask the dealer if they have another if it's a new item. I've even done some little tests where I put in my maximum bid early, even if it's something like $40 more than the 5 previous identical items from the same dealer have gone for and I'm still sniped in the closing seconds. It just seems crazy at times.

[Deirdre]

So why bother sniping at all instead of just entering your maximum bid earlier? Because you know you probably won't get it at that price and someone will outbid you?

Giving other people information earlier frequently changes their behavior.

[murph]

So why bother sniping at all instead of just entering your maximum bid earlier? Because you know you probably won't get it at that price and someone will outbid you?

Giving other people information earlier frequently changes their behavior.

 

Therefore, you're not the person willing to pay the most for the item, you're just the one who gets in with the highest last second bid. In theory then, if you snipe using software you don't have any moral high ground over a nibbler. To pretend you use such services for any other reason than to get the item at the best deal is really deluding yourself. Every buyer is out to get the best deal possible. Not that I've never given a seller a little extra if I've won something at a very good price, but if they were too worried they should have used a reserve.

[OldGriz]

So why bother sniping at all instead of just entering your maximum bid earlier? Because you know you probably won't get it at that price and someone will outbid you?

Giving other people information earlier frequently changes their behavior.

 

Therefore, you're not the person willing to pay the most for the item, you're just the one who gets in with the highest last second bid. In theory then, if you snipe using software you don't have any moral high ground over a nibbler. To pretend you use such services for any other reason than to get the item at the best deal is really deluding yourself. Every buyer is out to get the best deal possible. Not that I've never given a seller a little extra if I've won something at a very good price, but if they were too worried they should have used a reserve.

 

Let me explain in another way... and I have seen this happen in a bunch of auctions....

When someone decides to place an early bid, it is recorded in the auction.... then someone comes along and decides to raise that bid.... they find out they are already outbid... so they raise it again and again they are outbid... this sometimes starts a strange mental process of "I'm going to outbid that SOB no matter what" and they continue until they are the high bidder.... NOW that person may not have actually wanted to bid that much when he started looking at the auction... but for some strange reason auctions bring out some interesting mental processes in some people and they suddenly have to have the high bid...

When I snipe, I know what the top dollar I want to spend on an item is... I snipe that price and go away.... I usually look to see where the item is occassionally and if it goes above my snipe well so be it... unless I decide I really want it and then I MIGHT (rarely) raise my snipe... but very rarely...

By hiding what I decide is my top dollar offer, I keep the "I'm gonna beat you" mentality bidders at bay.....

That does not mean I win a load of auctions.... this week alone, I was still low bidder on all my auctions... sometimes by a little and sometimes by a lot....

Sniping is no guarantee you are going to win...

As for your moral ground argument... who ever said that auctions are some sort of moral ground.... I find this moral ground argument very interesting.... I am out to beat the other guy... no morals involved... I am out to beat them... if I can do that by sniping, I will.... I see no problem with that...

[Deirdre]

To pretend you use such services for any other reason than to get the item at the best deal is really deluding yourself. Every buyer is out to get the best deal possible.

That's in fact the entire point. I don't see why I'd pretend otherwise.

[david i]

So why bother sniping at all instead of just entering your maximum bid earlier? Because you know you probably won't get it at that price and someone will outbid you?

Giving other people information earlier frequently changes their behavior.

 

Therefore, you're not the person willing to pay the most for the item, you're just the one who gets in with the highest last second bid. In theory then, if you snipe using software you don't have any moral high ground over a nibbler. To pretend you use such services for any other reason than to get the item at the best deal is really deluding yourself. Every buyer is out to get the best deal possible. Not that I've never given a seller a little extra if I've won something at a very good price, but if they were too worried they should have used a reserve.

 

I'm confused as to "moral high ground". I use the service for specific reason to get item at best price. It is quite so that in this context, giving other people info earlier frequently changes their behavior. The best reason to snipe.

 

d

 

[AndyHayes]

In my early ebay days I thought that there was something underhand about sniping then I decided that I wanted a Leatherman Crunch. They were £90 in the UK, a sum that I was unwilling to pay. I saw that a seller was selling them on eBay and they were going for £35 so every time he put one up for sale I bid £37.50 at the start of the auction. By then end of the auction I had been outbid. This went on for 6 auctions! In the end I learnt about www.snip.pl who charge 10p (20c) (per won auction) to bid in the last seconds of the auction. I got my Leatherman Crunch for £35 using this method. The seller must have loved me previous to this event.

 

I have lost far more auctions than I have won using a sniping tool and that is because my bids are low. A Parker 51 Flighter might be worth £x to the pen community, but to me its value may be considerably less, so I bid less. When I don't win it I am unsurprised, but I have bid no more than I thought that it was worth to me and I haven't got tempted into a bidding war. Snip.pl has never let me down.

[johnee]

I guess I don't see the advantage of sniping services unless you won't be awake/available for the bid. I simply use the 1-click bid and get in a bid at the last second, literally.

 

I know someone that works for ebay and their algorithm ensures the highest bid will win, not the fastest... if three bids come in within a few seconds of each other, they will sequentially apply the lowest bid, then the middle bid, then the highest, not really surprising, but the point is you have to bid high to beat all other bids.

 

Something else a little off topic, I don't like the way they show bidders as "a**a". They make it impossible for me to verify a real person is attached to that bid. As far as I know, the current setup allows them to completely hide a "bidder", not allowing verification. I'm not saying ebay is analyzing my max bid and making up bidders to get close to my bid to make the actual selling price near my max, and I know large companies, one such as Enron, have high moral standards and would never do anything illegal just to make their quarterly profits, but I'm just thinking out loud

[Deirdre]

I'm confused as to "moral high ground". I use the service for specific reason to get item at best price. It is quite so that in this context, giving other people info earlier frequently changes their behavior. The best reason to snipe.

Yesterday, I sniped against a nibbler, in an auction where the main bidder had 12 bids, and the second most active bidder had 5 -- more than half the bids for the item in question.

 

Had neither of them bid until the last few seconds, it's entirely probable I'd have bid too little. However, it was obvious that, for the first bidder, he or she was continuing to stretch how much he or she was going to spend. This person stopped bidding two hours before the end, and long before the most serious three of us swooped in at the end.

 

While the pen wasn't a bargain, it was one I'd been looking for, and therefore I will enjoy it when it arrives.

[Renzhe]

Hmmm...I thought I've posted on this thread before but maybe it was another one.

 

Anyway, I snipe manually. I've never lost an auction where I sniped (and I've never paid too much). I'm only not around to snipe if the item's relatively unimportant.

 

Of course, if everyone bids their maximum the first time, there is no point in sniping, but everyone doesn't bid their max the first time, which is why I continue to punish them for their ill tactics.

[menick]

Tried my first snipe yesterday.

 

Missed, 2 people sniped higher (DAMN THOSE SNIPERS)

 

 

Sniped again today. Was an easy grab, but snipping saved me. Crazy day and forget to check. But got 2 emails in one shot... one to say my bid was placed, the other one to say that I had one!

 

quite happy! Will snipe again!

[david i]

So why bother sniping at all instead of just entering your maximum bid earlier? Because you know you probably won't get it at that price and someone will outbid you?

Giving other people information earlier frequently changes their behavior.

 

Therefore, you're not the person willing to pay the most for the item, you're just the one who gets in with the highest last second bid. In theory then, if you snipe using software you don't have any moral high ground over a nibbler. To pretend you use such services for any other reason than to get the item at the best deal is really deluding yourself. Every buyer is out to get the best deal possible. Not that I've never given a seller a little extra if I've won something at a very good price, but if they were too worried they should have used a reserve.

 

No, he's the smart person... the person willing to be the high bidder while paying less than he might have to or someone else would, if that other person had the information which he- as the smart person- is smart enough not to share with that other person. Which sort of is his point. I'm not sure what this moral high ground has to do with the subject we discuss... sniping. What is this moral high ground? I am on no "moral" or "immoral" ground, high or low in either case, when bidding. I simply bid as intelligently/functionally as possible to get item at best price. Thus... i snipe.

 

regards

 

david

 

 

[david i]

I guess I don't see the advantage of sniping services unless you won't be awake/available for the bid. I simply use the 1-click bid and get in a bid at the last second, literally.

 

I know someone that works for ebay and their algorithm ensures the highest bid will win, not the fastest... if three bids come in within a few seconds of each other, they will sequentially apply the lowest bid, then the middle bid, then the highest, not really surprising, but the point is you have to bid high to beat all other bids.

 

Something else a little off topic, I don't like the way they show bidders as "a**a". They make it impossible for me to verify a real person is attached to that bid. As far as I know, the current setup allows them to completely hide a "bidder", not allowing verification. I'm not saying ebay is analyzing my max bid and making up bidders to get close to my bid to make the actual selling price near my max, and I know large companies, one such as Enron, have high moral standards and would never do anything illegal just to make their quarterly profits, but I'm just thinking out loud

 

The advantage of sniping service indeed is that. You get to bid at last second, avoiding empowering (enabling???) silly nibblers, and you get to do that while not having to be awake or at all interested in sitting by your computer. A gift from heaven to frequent and successful pen bidders such as me..

 

I believe your friend at ebay has given you true but irrelevant information, as follows...

 

I know someone that works for ebay and their algorithm ensures the highest bid will win, not the fastest... if three bids come in within a few seconds of each other, they will sequentially apply the lowest bid, then the middle bid, then the highest, not really surprising, but the point is you have to bid high to beat all other bids.

 

True information is not always helpful information. Your friend could tell you that the sky over ebay is usually blue by day- and this might be true- but would not yield insight into the benefit of sniping.

 

It was noted in the earliest posts in this thread that highest bids that get in to ebay before close win auctions, independent of how long before the auction closes they are entered. We did not need a friend at ebay to tell us this. No snipers have cited the speed of the bid allowing lower bid to trump higher.

 

Rather, the discussion has been about auction psychology, that a percentage of bidders (nibblers) bid in response to what they see happening on an auction, rather than due to an intrinsic and educated decision about value of said item. Sniping effectively eliminates them in some auctions. Thus sniping conveys an advantage in some auctions. It conveys no disadvantage ever. Thus it is a beneficial strategy for those who employ it.

 

regards

 

david

 

 

 

[johnboz]

I'll chime in here to say that I enjoy occasionally placing a bid at the beginning of an auction, nibbling with a few hours to go (while still well below my max bid) and manually sniping at the very end. My heart-rate increases and it's much more exciting to pull out a manual snipe than to get an email that says I won. I'm also constantly amazed at how high people will bid on items, and seeing the value jump in the last minutes is very interesting. My max is typically out-bid by others (maybe I'm too cheap), but I can't say I've regretted any auctions I've won. I'm a bargain hunter who loves a good deal. When it's fun and exciting to get a good deal, all the better!

[lh66]

I've used http://justsnipe.com and http://swiftsnipe.com. Both are good auction sniping services.